Trips to the Mathematical Universe: Prime divisibility of binomial coefficients (2021/2022)
You are kindly invited to the 5th lecture of Famnits' Trips to the Mathematical Universe (Famnitovi izleti v matematično vesolje), entitled »Prime divisibility of binomial coefficients« by Dr. Russ Woodroofe (UP Famnit). The lecture will be held on Wednesday, 23rd March 2022, at 18.00, in VP3 (Lecture hall 3 at Famnit) and will be available also via ZOOM link.
How many ways are there to pick k objects out from a bin of n objects? The answer is given by the binomial coefficient "n choose k". We'll show you how to easily determine whether a binomial coefficient is divisible by a prime, even when the numbers involved are quite large. We'll apply this criterion to a problem that arose in my work with John Shareshian. The distribution of prime numbers will make an unexpected cameo appearance.
Russ Woodroofe received his PhD in 2005 from Cornell University in the USA. Since 2016 he has been an Associate Professor at UP FAMNIT. Prior to that, he lectured at Mississippi State University, at Washington University in St. Louis (both in the USA), and at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (Qatar). His research field is topological combinatorics, where he often combines geometry, symmetry and algebra.
The full program of this year's Trips to the Mathematical Universe lecture cycle is available here.
You are kindly invited!